Horace Getchell Cates (ca. 1864–1911) was a surgeon in Los Angeles County, California. He died of blood poisoning a week after scratching his thumb with a pin while preparing a dressing for a patient in Crocker Hospital, of which he was superintendent.[1][2][3]
The Los Angeles Times said his case was "one of the most serious that ever came to the attention of the surgeons in the Los Angeles hospitals."[2] "The injury was hardly noticeable, but the infection developed with startling suddenness. All of the methods of modern medical science failed to check the spread of the disease," reported the Los Angeles Evening Express, labeling it "blood poisoning."[1][4]
He and Mary E. Bicknell were married on June 15, 1895, in Los Angeles.[10] He was survived by her and five children, Charles B., Horace B., Ella, Mildren N. and Mary Edna. He died without a will, leaving property in Los Angeles, Ventura, and Fresno counties.[11] Interment was in Inglewood Park Cemetery.[2] The New York Insurance Press reported on June 27, 1912, that the largest single insurance claim paid in California during 1911, $95,000, was to the Cates heirs.[12]
His mother, Helena A. Cates, had died on May 26, 1891.[13] He had a brother, Alton M. Cates, who died November 23, 1920.[14]
This article needs additional or more specific categories. Please help outbyadding categories to it so that it can be listed with similar articles.(July 2022)
